The Witcher 2 thus far is a deeply uneven game in it’s first chapter. I just finished it and it gives you a handful of choices. A handful of really cool moments. And a lot of really frustrating unexplained mechanics and quests which expect the player to dig a lot more than the norm in modern gaming conventions.

Just one example of this, there’s a pair of quests in the first town where the player is expected to do some research on monsters in order to get started. They don’t give you any directions about this just that you need to learn about the monsters.

To find the books you’ve got to sort of randomly go into every house in town till you find the librarian, and get the books from that guy. The combat system is a bit opaque too. This gives the player a lot of freedom in terms of how to proceed but it also gives you a lot of chances to try and fail at things. How much of this you can put up with is going to be a case of ‘your mileage may vary.’

Geralt of Rivia

I feel like this would be a better game had their been a bit more scaffolding in the beginning. A bit more of a primer on how the various systems work–especially combat, crafting and character development. There is a tutorial but it really has a lot of mysteries.

If you’re the kind of person who likes those things, then you’ll probably enjoy puzzling out the Witcher 2. So far it’s led me to feel a bit frustrated at times with it in Chapter 1. I am going to keep going–but it’s not yet a game I’m absolutely committed to finishing.